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Seven months ago, Category Five Hurricane Melissa tore through the coastal community of New Town in Black River, St Elizabeth, Jamaica, leaving a trail of shattered homes and disrupted lives. As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season approaches, local residents are navigating uneven paths to recovery, with stark differences in how families are able to prepare for the next potential storm.

For two locals actively rebuilding their properties, investment in reinforced construction is a top priority to avoid repeating last year’s trauma. Retiree Stennet Lewis, a Jamaica-born former U.S. military member and government agent who returned to his hometown to settle permanently after decades abroad, has poured personal resources into strengthening his rebuilt roof. “I imported most of the hurricane straps, galvanized nails, and high-grade roofing shingles directly from the United States, and we’re using solid two-by-six lumber for the framework,” Lewis explained while overseeing construction crews at his property on Friday. “My whole goal is to have every reinforcement finished before a storm hits, so I can finally settle back home peacefully and enjoy the life I came back for.”

A short distance away, veteran local roof carpenter Andre Bigby is finally turning his attention to his own family home, after spending weeks in the immediate aftermath of the storm repairing dozens of damaged roofs for neighbors across the community. Like Lewis, Bigby is prioritizing hardened construction techniques he did not have access to for his own property before the storm. “We’re installing heavy-duty hurricane straps and J-bolts that anchor the roof plating directly to the rafters,” Bigby said, demonstrating the hardware during construction. “I’ve already added these reinforcements to every home I’ve worked on since the storm, and it’s long past time my own place got the same protection.”

Bigby’s journey to rebuilding has been a long one. He survived the storm by fleeing his collapsing home for shelter in a parked car in his garage, where he waited out the aftermath for roughly two weeks after a falling star apple tree triggered his roof to lift off. His family applied for government roofing relief through Jamaica’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which assessed the damage three weeks after the storm, but the family has yet to receive any assistance. “Everything you see here is self-funded,” Bigby noted. Despite the harrowing experience, he says he has processed the trauma and feels confident in his new preparations. “I’ve seen the worst that can happen, and now I’m ready. I don’t think any coming storm will hit as hard as Melissa did, and I’m prepared either way.”

Not all residents share that sense of cautious optimism, however. For Sasha Dillion, a renter who has long aspired to own her own home, every rainfall triggers new anxiety, as her rental property’s damaged roof has never been repaired. Dillion and her family of four already endured a terrifying ordeal during Melissa, when their roof tore off mid-storm and forced them to seek emergency shelter with neighbors. The trauma of that experience has left lasting impacts: her 10-year-old son now suffers from panic attacks during heavy rain or strong wind, crying whenever unstable weather hits.

Dillion has already purchased a plot of land to build her own home, and has managed to collect a small supply of roofing materials, but she lacks the funds to move construction forward. As hurricane season nears, she and her family remain in a constant state of fear. “I just need a little help to get started. Even a small two-bedroom home would be enough to take this weight off our shoulders,” she said. “Every day I worry another storm will come, and we’ll be right back where we were last year. I just want a safe place my family doesn’t have to be scared in anymore.”

For Lewis, the widespread destruction Melissa left across his childhood hometown remains a painful sight. While he welcomes the Jamaican government’s proposed plan to relocate and rebuild Black River further inland to reduce future storm risk, he says residents are waiting for visible, tangible progress and more widespread relief for post-storm rebuilding. “I understand government work has procedures, and it doesn’t happen overnight,” Lewis said. “But people need to see action, to know leaders are dedicated to helping us get back on our feet. That reassurance means a lot when you’re staring down a new hurricane season after what we just went through.”

Across the community, photos from the area show the uneven recovery: active construction crews from the Jamaica Defence Force working on homes in nearby New Holland, Bigby demonstrating his reinforced building hardware, Dillion resting her head in her hand amid ongoing worry, and abandoned damaged homes still standing empty seven months after the storm.

For nearly 15 years, Claudette Grant has navigated an unrelenting series of hardships, all while clinging to her faith to hold her family together. The Jamaican mother has dedicated every waking moment to caring for her teenage daughter Hannahlisa Hall, who lives with a severe case of sickle cell disease that has left her with ongoing health complications and a need for constant, round-the-clock care. What makes Grant’s fight even more staggering is that she faces her own undiagnosed health complications and crippling unpaid medical debt that has left the family in dire financial straits – yet she says she still gives thanks every day that her daughter is still alive.

Hannahlisa’s battle with illness began moments after she was born, when doctors diagnosed her with full-blown sickle cell disease, a chronic genetic blood disorder that causes intense pain, organ damage, and heightened risk of stroke and infection. By the time she was just nine years old, in 2017, she had already suffered four separate strokes, a devastating turn that left her with long-term neurological impacts. Her story first gained public attention in a 2021 feature published by the *Jamaica Observer*, which highlighted her family’s struggle to access affordable, consistent care. Years later, the teen is now approaching her 15th birthday on June 16, but her health challenges have not eased.

Grant explains that Hannahlisa continues to experience frequent, debilitating seizures that disrupt her daily life. While doctors have prescribed anti-seizure medication, Grant says the treatment has done little to reduce the frequency or intensity of these episodes. From early childhood, Hannahlisa has been a regular inpatient at local hospitals, often requiring admission two to three times a month to manage sickle cell complications. Each hospital stay adds another layer of stress, Grant says, because the resulting medical bills far outpace the family’s limited income. With no way to cover the escalating costs, unpaid debt has piled up, and hospital administrators contact Grant regularly to demand payment.

The most recent large bill came after a three-week admission to the University Hospital of the West Indies this past December, which totaled JMD $326,000 – a sum Grant has been completely unable to pay. Most recently, Hannahlisa was admitted again after developing a fever and shortness of breath on a school morning; doctors opted to keep her for observation given her complex medical history, adding even more to the family’s outstanding balance.

To be available for every emergency and daily care need, Grant had to give up her job entirely, eliminating the family’s only steady source of income. That sacrifice has only worsened their financial insecurity, but Grant says she has no other choice – Hannahlisa cannot be left alone for any extended period of time. Compounding this already overwhelming situation is Grant’s own declining health. She recently experienced a dangerous fainting spell that landed her in the hospital, testing that revealed a cyst on her left abdomen, and persistent high blood pressure that leaves her exhausted and unwell most days.

Despite being in need of ongoing medical care herself, Grant puts her daughter’s needs first, juggling multiple hospital appointments while struggling to keep up with costs. “Hannahlisa depends on me for help, and I don’t feel good within myself. I have to take her to hospital and I also have to go to hospital. It is even worse now to know that financially and in every aspect I need help,” Grant told the *Observer*. Even amid these overwhelming challenges, Grant says her faith has kept her family grounded. “A God a keep the family together. We pray and God keeps the family together,” she said, emphasizing that she is grateful her daughter has lived to see her 15th year, an outcome many would not have expected given the severity of her illness.

The family is now reaching out to the public for any assistance to cover mounting medical costs and basic living expenses. Community members or other donors wishing to support Claudette Grant and Hannahlisa Hall can contact Grant directly at (876) 589-1468.

NEW ROADS, Westmoreland — On a landmark Friday ceremony, Jamaica’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security and Peace Dr Horace Chang opened a purpose-built digital learning centre at New Roads Primary School, his childhood alma mater, tying the expansion of rural educational access directly to the nation’s ongoing push for lasting community peace and poverty reduction.

The new facility, a fully fitted 20-seat computer laboratory, fulfils a pledge Chang first made back in 2007. Equipped with high-speed Starlink Internet connectivity arranged through the Universal Service Fund, the lab is designed to expand educational access for young learners in this rural Westmoreland community, where opportunity gaps between rural and urban areas have long limited student outcomes. Alongside the lab, Chang also donated three laptops for teaching staff and new cricket equipment for the school’s student body, framing the entire initiative as a long-term investment rather than a one-off gesture.

Speaking to an assembled crowd of students, educators, parents and local community leaders, Chang explained that the recent renaming of his portfolio to the Ministry of National Security and Peace signals a policy shift: while investments in law enforcement have delivered tangible progress, building lasting peace requires equal investment in education and youth development. “We can say without hesitation, today, Jamaica is safer than it was three years ago, and I commend the police for the effort,” he noted. “But that leaves space for much more structured activity in our communities, and part of that is our education field.”

Chang emphasized that education remains the single most sustainable path to breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty, reducing social dysfunction, and opening pathways to upward mobility. A graduate of New Roads Primary who went on to attend Cornwall College and the University of the West Indies, the veteran lawmaker drew from his own experience to argue that a student’s starting point in life does not determine their potential. “Education is the gateway to another world, a world of improvement, better quality of life, to achieve your dream and success,” he stated.

The new digital centre, he added, leverages technology to narrow the rural-urban opportunity divide, drawing on positive outcomes from similar computer labs he has previously installed across other constituencies, including Glendevon Primary School in St James North Western, where the technology has driven measurable improvements in literacy, numeracy and overall student performance. “The idea is to demonstrate that with technology we can reach them [students], and provide the teachers with those tools that will help them to get across to the students that will educate them, build them, develop more human resources,” he explained. “This is not only about giving back to my community, which is important, but to also send a message that we’re in a world today where we can use technology to reach anywhere in Jamaica. And we can offer opportunities to everyone, whether it’s sports, academia, development of our students’ talent at any point in Jamaica. We just have to have the commitment and the willingness to invest.”

Local and national education leaders echoed calls for the school community to steward the new facility to maximise its long-term impact. Westmoreland Eastern Member of Parliament Dr Dayton Campbell urged attendees to protect the investment, noting that Chang’s rise from humble local roots to national leadership is proof that students in rural communities can achieve any goal they set. “It means that you can grow wherever you are planted. There is absolutely nothing to invalidate your dreams,” Campbell said.

Rhoda Moy Crawford, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, thanked Chang for his generous donation and stressed that protecting the facility is a shared responsibility that supports public safety as well as education. “All of us have to put our hands together to protect this investment,” she said.

New Roads Primary Principal Coreen Tennant-James called the digital learning centre a transformative addition for the school, noting that expanding access to digital tools will help both students and educators build the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital global economy. “We express heartfelt gratitude to everyone who contributed to making this dream a reality,” she said. “Your investment in education is truly an investment in the future of our children. And, to our students, this laboratory is for you. Use it wisely, allow it to inspire creativity, learning, and excellence.”